Frank Potter?s Science Gems is a collection of resources in teaching for physical science, earth science, life science, engineering, mathematics, science training, and health. The science training or STS site is an added category with a different format without the links back to the main Science Gems page. The Health and Reference Desk links are part of a different website called Martindale?s. Each category of the Science Gems site is broken down into subcategories. Within each category is a list of links to other internet sites. Each site is categorized by minimum grade level and contains a one or two sentence description of the site. Some sites follow the national science education standards, while others are sites that merely promote collections of factual information.
Type of Material:
Collection of links to educational activities.
Recommended Uses:
Sites to supplement the teaching of science.
Technical Requirements:
The original site does not have any specific requirements. However, many of the links require a variety of plugins.
Identify Major Learning Goals:
None stated.
Target Student Population:
K-16 teachers of science.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:
None listed.
Content Quality
Rating:
Strengths:
Quality of Content: 3.0, 3.0 = 3.0
A large collection of links that may provide many ideas for teaching as well as resources to supplement the teaching of science from elementary through high school.
An excellent resource for science teaching
The site is well laid out. The descriptions of the collection and the level of rating for each site in the collection are accurate.
Concerns:
Many of the links do not promote standards-based science teaching
Many links promote lessons that emphasize observation, but not data collection, analysis or prediction.
Many of the sites contain factual errors or misrepresent science concepts
There is very little explanation on the main pages of the Science Gems site to indicate what the site is about and how to use the site. There appears to be little screening or evaluation of the sites in the collection.
Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool
Rating:
Strengths:
Potential Effectiveness: 3.0, 3.0 = 3.0
A good source of inspirational ideas and resources for creating new curriculuar units.
There are a variety of resources for teachers to use in supplementing instruction.
Concerns:
Because this site only provides links, there is no quality control over the type of information provided in the link. Providing lessons without any guidance as to how these activities fit into a larger framework of standards and benchmarks is the approach we are trying to steer teachers away from.
Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty
Rating:
Strengths:
Ease of Use: 3.0, 3.0 = 3.0
The home page site is very easy to navigate and is intuitive.
Concerns:
Many of the links are difficult to navigate .
Many links require the use of plugins,
but do not provide links for downloading the plugin.
Links not correlated to standards and benchmarks.
There is no way to search the site for specific activities. It is more of a trial and error method of use of materials.
Creative Commons:
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